Sadie: Last week, we left Homer and went to England! The flights were pretty boring, but we made it safely to London. There we spent a couple of days catching up on sleep and walking around seeing the sights.
Rachel: The kids did great on the flights, although we didn’t get too much sleep. Sadie slept the most, which was lovely, and Linnea really struggled. She finally found sleep on the hard floor of the airport during a short layover in Amsterdam (now referred to as ‘Hamsterdam’). It took me several days to recover on the sleep front (I’m still suffering some middle-of-the-night jetlag issues) - that first night I went to bed at 3PM, Ben and the girls followed shortly after. We all slept (with some interruptions) until 10AM the next morning - yikes.
Ben: The people in London seemed quite kind.
Sadie: One thing we saw was mounted police!
Sadie: The next morning we went to see the changing of the horse guards at Saint James Palace. It was pretty short, there was a lot of stomping by the guys on the ground in front. The horses seemed bored. The one on the left had its tongue sticking out most of the time!
Linnea: They had really shiny armor!
Sadie: The London Eye is huge! Our hotel was right next to it. We went to Trafalgar Square and saw a lot of statues and two fountains (one had a guy with a fish squirting water out!). Papa lifted us up onto this lion. We also went to the Queen’s palace (Buckingham Palace). We couldn’t go in because there were these gates in front. Look closely and you will see a lion and a unicorn! This big clock is Big Ben.
Rachel: We walked a LOT around London. It was great sightseeing, though it was super cold & windy. Lots of people, statues, fabulous old buildings and history. Big Ben and the House of Parliament (the center of the national government) was just across the river from our hotel and made for a grand view.
Sadie: We walked through Hyde Park to get to this playground in Kensington Gardens. This part of the park was the most comfortable part ever! I loved it. It was tucked into a nice corner, with some sunshine, and it was so fun. And comfortable. There was an amazing ship. Me and Linnea played some in it, not a lot though. There were two treasure chests (that you couldn’t open), a bunch of really fun slides, a music section, a bit of climbing stuff, and a lot of soft sand. We saw two squirrels - they were enormous!
Rachel: It was really fun to walk through the parks in central London. It was a bit farther than I anticipated - on this day we walked a total of 7.5 miles! We love finding playgrounds, and this Princess Diana Memorial Playground was one of our favorites. There was also a great one right next to our hotel, and a few other so-so playgrounds we hit in the city.
Sadie: Those other playgrounds were mostly for younger kids….
Sadie: The birds there were amazing! I especially liked the pigeons. I love them and wanted to protect them, and they are really fun to chase. They come in a whole bunch of different colors (not rainbow, though!). I loved the white pigeons! The black swan was pretty cool, too. There were the regular swans (Mute Swans) and some kids were throwing some food to them so there a lot of them nearby.
Sadie: This is me with Paddington Bear at Paddington Station. I don’t know if you can see Linnea, but she’s hiding behind it. This was our last day in London. We were waiting for a train to take us to Bristol to see our cousins and aunt. The train station was cool and I made a new game on the train. I loved the sights even though the other three were feeling a bit tired and/or motion sick.
